‘SHE is by far the most attractive member of the family,” David Sedaris once wrote of his sister Amy, “yet she spends most of her time and money disguising herself beneath prosthetic humps and appliquéd skin diseases.”

It’s a common affliction among the beautiful and theatrically inclined, this yearning to uglify. And the deeper you go, the more seriously you’re taken when awards season rolls around: recall Nicole Kidman’s nose-y Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” or Charlize Theron’s flabby serial killer in “Monster,” both of which took home Golden Globes.

But this year’s crop of Globes film nominees take playing dress-down to a whole new level. Never before have we seen such a high concentration of latex wrinkles, bulbous noses and CGI neck wattles. From psychotic clownface to modern-day blackface, 2008 was clearly the Year of the Makeup Artist.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama

Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

On paper, a movie where you spend more than an hour waiting for Brad Pitt’s Greek-godlike physique to emerge from underneath a sea of crepey skin folds and milky contacts sounds.. less than enticing. But it works – it really works. Makeup effects supervisor Greg Cannom’s cutting-edge cosmetic and prosthetic techniques – with the help of CGI – ensure that Pitt is clearly visible even when he’s a wizened old man of 7 or a pimply teenager of 83.

Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”

Frank Langella’s nose is Nixon’s nose. And as the nose goes, so goes the actor. Langella, who played the president on Broadway before he starred in Ron Howard’s film adaptation, reportedly wore a $5,000 wig reproduction of Nixon’s waved hair, and a gelatin replica of his schnoz – oh-so-subtly sized down from the real thing, as the full-blown version “looked a little gross on Frank’s face,” makeup artist David Anderson has said.

Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Rourke actually did most of the facial work here on his own. Take years of relentless partying and a brief stint as a boxer, and combine them with what must have been a trip or two to a cut-rate plastic surgeon, and you get the kind of face that screams “washed-up Hulk Hogan wannabe.” Makeup artists, however, were responsible for the myriad bloody wrestling injuries his character incurs. (We never want to see another staple gun as long as we live.) And you have to hand it to the hair department: those flowing blond extensions, thinning in spots and painfully bleached, are spot-on.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama

Kristin Scott Thomas, “I’ve Loved You So Long”

Thomas is an actress who does much of her best work looking pained, but her new movie adds the indignity of looking haggard in the extreme. As a middle-age woman who’s spent the past two decades in jail, she seems entirely cosmetic-less, all under-eye circles, gaunt cheekbones and haunted regret. Her hands are rough and red, her clothing the baggy uniform of the depressed. Consequently, when her character manages a rare smile, it’s as if she’s spent an hour or two in the makeup chair.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture-Drama

Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”

How it got green-lighted in the first place, we’ll never know. But Robert Downey Jr. playing an Australian method actor who undergoes “skin-darkening” surgery to play a black soldier is one of the most inspired performances of the year – and clearly the boldest, given the inevitable uproar over the presumed resurgence of the minstrel show. But Downey quashed that line of thinking: “The whole film,” he has said, “is based on the idea that what we (actors) do at some level is offensive.”

Tom Cruise, “Tropic Thunder”

It’s been said that audiences don’t realize it was Cruise underneath the fat suit, the terrible glasses and the pitted skin. We think anyone whose had even a passing acquaintance with Cruise’s nasal voice has to get the hint – but hi>

Arguably the most complete disguise of all: Penn loses himself in the role of San Francisco’s late city supervisor, the first US gay elected official, and convincingly becomes . . . a really nice guy! How do they do that?